Autor Cointelegraph By Ornella Hernandez

NFT collections brought to life at SXSW: Doodles and FLUF World

NFT collections brought to life at SXSW: Doodles and FLUF World

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 18, 2022 |

Cointelegraph journalists at South by Southwest, or SXSW, in Austin, Texas reported that NFTs were everywhere this year, marking a new phenomenon for what began as a music festival in 1987. Since evolving into a film, tech and general culture gathering, and after a two-year hiatus, SXSW added blockchain programming to the mix with crypto-related panels, blockchain company sponsors and NFT community interactive experiences. Two NFT communities with the largest physical presences at SXSW were Doodles and FLUF World who ran immersive, multi-day and multi-sensory experiences. They built physical installations at which attendees would wait in long lines to enter and interact with these virtual communities in real life. Cointelegraph got to the bottom of how these digital collections came to life at SXSW.Doodles is a collection of generative hand-drawn NFTs of skeletons, cats, aliens, apes and mascots. Doodle holders and curious passersby could enter a Doodle-themed structure to buy a drink at the bar, get Doodles painted on their nails, eat some noodles and display owned Doodle NFTs throughout the exhibit. If a t-shirt or sticker purchase was made at the Shopify-powered gift shop, customers entered a raffle to win a Doodle.gm austin. see u soon!https://t.co/VMd0BkbiX1#DoodlesSXSW #SXSW @BehrPaint @Shopify pic.twitter.com/05HCo5Vl7c— doodles (@doodles) March 12, 2022Cointelegraph spoke with the Doodles founding team about their mission at SXSW and the collection’s roadmap. According to co-founder Jordan Castro, AKA Poopie, Doodles hopes to leverage its brand strength, reach and resources to help NFT owners with their own entrepreneurial efforts by monetizing their Doodles. “We are showing the world by example what we believe the future of brands to be; communities becoming stakeholders. It is our philosophy that communities will be the future flywheel of brand growth, and our approach is to foster successful, creative, technical and entrepreneurial talent from within our community.”Doodles launched in October 2021, and has since grown its Doodlebank, the community treasury, to a balance of over $3 million. Castro explained how Doodles holders can propose expansion initiatives, products, experiences or governance ideas in the Doodlebank Forum, and all Doodle holders get to vote on these proposals. Two of these proposals-turned-businesses were showcased at SXSW: Noodles and Coffeedoods. Noodles became an entirely new NFT collection and brand that grew to generate more than $550 thousand in sales and $500 thousand in royalties. Visitors at the activation lined up to get a taste, while those who needed a caffeine pick-me-up queued up at the coffee bar. Coffeedoods is a separate Web3 coffee distribution company founded by owners of Coffeehead Doodles, with a subscription NFT to receive monthly shipments of CoffeeDoods coffee. There are currently more than 5 thousand pre-sale customers, according to the company.Future plans for the Doodles community include “continuing to bring Doodles into mainstream public consciousness” through additional IRL activations, said Castro. The team revealed that they will set up a permanent installation in a yet to be announced American city with support from local government and businesses.Inside the Doodles installation.Doodles also recently expanded their universe of “joy and rainbow puke” to include Space Doodles, which all Doodlers can claim for free in addition to an extended license NFT that grants them new commercialization rights into Doodle Toys. These toys or collectibles will target users with NFT figurines inspired by the original Doodles collection.Related: Run-DMC‘s McDaniels at SXSW: Blockchain can take the power back for artistsThe FLUF World pop-up village appeared a few blocks away from Doodles. FLUF World is a metaverse ecosystem of virtual land, music and games, known for its 3D rabbit avatar characters. FLUF developed the FLUF Haus arm of the company to create global IRL experiences, from Art Basel in Miami to the Super Bowl in Los Angeles and now to SXSW in Austin. The FLUF Haus SXSW edition blocked off an open area of bars, food trucks and three giant domes home to panel discussions, VR activities and artist workshops. In the evening, the NFT community could gather to enjoy DJ sets and musical performances. So we introduced ourselves, our collections and our friends around the World! Take a little trip with us through the https://t.co/y9ths2hXzo journey so far! #FLUFworld #NFTCommunity #SXSW pic.twitter.com/hiA2RTDejP— FLUF (@flufworld) March 17, 2022

According to Alex Smeele, co-founder and chief executive officer of Non-Fungible Labs and F World, SXSW offered the opportunity for industry leaders to connect in person and bring these traditionally online relationships into the real world.”True power comes from how these digital and physical worlds intersect. NFT communities are a great way for people all around the world to come together around shared passions and form strong social bonds.”The FLUF team shared that part of the mission for being at SXSW was to advocate for an open metaverse and get the community to sign the Metaverse Manifesto. Smeele expressed that the crypto and NFT industries “can be very toxic and male-dominated for the most part,” and that FLUF World intends to “weave ethics, diversity, and sustainability into the very fabric of our community” by helping to establish certain standards for Web3 companies.Smeele added that FLUF aims to build a “scalable metaverse with play-to-earn mechanics, as well as invent new ways for content creators to engage with their fans.” They partnered with the NFT collection Seekers, built by the Sylo Network that allows NFT owners to communicate their wallet address with any other wallet address, and with Altered State Machine, a protocol that enables AI ownership via NFTs. Together they set up an AR Snapchat experience for users to activate the FLUF World lens and enter the FLUF Dome via the app in order to enter for a chance to win FLUF characters or a Seeker NFT.In addition to IRL events, the community has helped the New Zealand-based team to raise an estimated 2 million New Zealand dollars in support of sustainability initiatives, homelessness and Ukrainian refugees. Smeele described that their main focuses over the next quarter include collaborating with leading and up-and-coming music and visual artists, and launching their own token called Mycelium. Additionally, FLUF plans to bring further functionality to its metaverse-ready characters and introduce breeding for their rabbit avatars to reportedly allow people to join the community at a lower price point.Related: Co-founders of UkraineDAO and Friends With Benefits DAO talk autonomous organizations at SXSWBoth of these communities took to the streets of Austin to showcase what their respective communities can expect from them: interaction, engagement and support to be their own creators. Another company, Blockchain Creative Labs, FOX Entertainment’s NFT studio, also hosted its own Web3 discussions, events and giveaways at SXSW. Their main attraction included a Dolly Parton live performance on the blockchain on Friday evening and the launch of the Dollyverse, a NFT drop of Dolly’s newest album.

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Jack Dorsey’s Block joins $41M funding for Japanese fintech Kyash

Jack Dorsey’s Block joins $41M funding for Japanese fintech Kyash

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 17, 2022 |

Kyash, a Tokyo-based digital wallet, announced a $41.2 million, or 4.9 billion yen, raise in a Series D round. Since launching in 2015, the cashless mobile app and corresponding credit card have grown its total funding to an estimated $108 million, or 12.8 billion yen. Both global investors and Japanese banks joined the round, including Japan Post Investment Corporation, Jack Dorsey’s Block, which was formerly known as Square, as well as Altos Ventures Goodwater Capital and StepStone Group in the United States. Additional investment came from Greyhound Capital in the United Kingdom, SMBC Nikko Securities, JAFCO Group, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital and others. According to a report by Nikkei, Kyash is the first Asia-based company in which Block has invested.  According to the company, the startup will use the proceeds to hire more employees, expand its product offerings and strengthen its service operations. Shinichi Takatori, Kyash’s president and CEO, revealed that “it has been difficult to create a sustainable business model based solely on the payment and settlement business,” and that he hopes these funds will position the company for its “high capital efficiency.” He also expressed gratitude for the new investment from Block, which he called “a leader in financial innovation in the U.S. and other countries.”Taikuma Baba, managing director of Japan Post Investment Corporation also offered a statement about his investment: “Kyash’s user-first, mobile-first philosophy and design is a key component of the global, irreversible trend toward unbundling traditional financial institutions and rebundling them with technology.”Kyash can be considered a neobank, or online bank, similar to the likes of Robinhood, Chime, SoFi and Revolut. Its previous Series C round raised $45 million in 2020.Related: Block nets $1.18B Q4 gross profit marking a 47% YoY increaseJack Dorsey stepped down from Twitter in November. Shortly thereafter, Square rebranded itself to Block in December, announcing the inclusion of several Bitcoin (BTC) companies within its portfolio. Block continues to operate Square and CashApp, as well as the music platform Tidal. Dorsey has since mainly focused on scaling Block’s crypto initiatives.The quotes used in this article have been translated from Japanese into English.

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Nifty News: Yuga Labs buys CryptoPunks, 1inch Wallet supports NFTs and more

Nifty News: Yuga Labs buys CryptoPunks, 1inch Wallet supports NFTs and more

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 17, 2022 |

This week’s Nifty News round up follows a weekend full of Yuga Labs announcements, the start of Austin’s SXSW conference and added NFT support for 1inch Wallet users.Yuga Labs acquires CryptoPunks and MeebitsYuga Labs, creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club, or BAYC, announced its acquisition of the Intellectual Property, or IP, of the CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT collections from Larva Labs. By adding these brands to their portfolio, Yuga Labs now owns copyright in the art, along with 423 CryptoPunks and 1711 Meebits.Some big news to share today: Yuga has acquired the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections from @LarvaLabs, and the first thing we’re doing is giving full commercial rights to the NFT holders. Just like we did for BAYC and MAYC owners. pic.twitter.com/lAIKKvoEDj— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) March 11, 2022CryptoPunks’ terms and conditions, unlike BAYC, previously restricted the transfer of IP, copyright or trademark to Punk owners. That’s why Yuga Labs decided to give full commercial rights to NFT holders to enable “developers and community creators to incorporate CryptoPunks and Meebits into their Web3 projects.”Matt Hall and John Watkinson, co-founders of Larva Labs, are not joining Yuga and will continue to run projects out of Larva Labs. They stated in a blog post that as the category of Profile Picture Projects, or PFP, grew into an industry in itself, “we saw in [Yuga Labs] the skill set and expertise in this space that we were missing.”NFT support added to the 1inch WalletThe 1inch Network announced that 1inch Wallet users will be able to view their NFTs held in their address and view information on them. This feature is intended to facilitate NFT storage and management, as well as enable users to send NFTs to other wallets. 1inch Wallet integrated the OpenSea API in order to add NFT support. Currently, the NFT support feature is available on the Ethereum and Polygon networks and will reportedly expand to other chains “soon.”1/ Behold! ✅ Legendary version 1.8.1 of the #1inchWallet for #iOS has just been rolled out.Why is it legendary? Because we added an #NFT support feature to it!More info ⤵️#1inch #DeFi #crypto https://t.co/PoJZEeE11L— 1inch Network (@1inch) March 16, 2022

San Antonio Spurs auction basketball playsThe San Antonio Spurs released the “1,336 Coach Pop NFT Collection” to honor head coach Gregg Popovich’s, AKA Coach Pop, 1,336 career wins. The NBA team has won five NBA Championships and Coach Pop broke the record for winning the most games of any coach in NBA history. The collection features digital recreations of Popovich’s hand-drawn plays. 100% of all proceeds will go to the San Antonio Food Bank, as per the coach’s request.The 1336 Coach Pop NFT Collection is LIVE Each #NFT highlights a hand-drawn play with a digital signature from Coach Pop and a backdrop of the different courts we’ve played on during his tenure! All proceeds benefit @safoodbank. Bid now until March 17 ⤵️@opensea | #PorVida— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) March 14, 2022

The Spurs’ longtime assistant coach, Brett Brown, originally had the idea to commemorate the NBA’s winningest head coach via an NFT auction. Out of the 1336 total pieces, five of which are 1:1 auctions that include the physical play card and a Spurs experience next season for the winner. The other 1331 NFTs are a combination of the five play cards and five courts that the Spurs have played on during coach pop’s tenure. Other Nifty NewsOn Wednesday, Coinbase launched a new feature, dubbed “Coinbase Pay,” that enables its clients to fund their Coinbase Wallets directly from a Chrome browser extension. According to its staff, Coinbase Pay intends to make it intuitive for anyone to participate in decentralized finance, or DeFi, swap tokens on decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, and purchase nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, in just a few clicks.The annual South by Southwest, or SXSW, conference kicked off this past weekend with “NFTs everywhere.” Companies from Doodles to Porsche offered NFT-themed installations to the thousands of attendees in Austin, Texas. SXSW had been cancelled for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.   

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HSBC enters The Sandbox to offer educational finance games

HSBC enters The Sandbox to offer educational finance games

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 16, 2022 |

HSBC, one of the largest European banks, with total assets of $2.4 trillion, announced its intention to buy a virtual plot of LAND within The Sandbox for an undisclosed amount. The new partners will develop opportunities for users to engage with sports, esports and gaming enthusiasts, according to the statement by The Sandbox.Delighted to announce we’ve partnered with @HSBC, one of the world’s largest international banking & financial services providers! Bringing a host of opportunities to engage with global financial services & sports communities in The Sandbox Metaverse.https://t.co/GmQ3lrVmnB— The Sandbox (@TheSandboxGame) March 16, 2022The banking giant will reportedly focus on financial literacy offerings and “work with our sports partners, brand ambassadors and Animoca Brands to co-create experiences that are educational, inclusive and accessible,” according to Suresh Balaji, HSBC’s chief marketing officer for the Asia-Pacific region.This partnership comes at a time when many financial institutions are closing physical branch locations due to the shift to digital banking, which was accelerated by the pandemic. Cointelegraph spoke to the recently appointed U.S. CEO of The Sandbox, Mathieu Nouzareth, about his vision for banking in the metaverse.”Financial literacy is a major obstacle to building healthier, more equitable financial futures. The gaming component of The Sandbox is ideally suited for engaging customers and curious onlookers about important financial concepts in an interesting and novel way.”He added that he hopes to connect with a “generation who is accustomed to engaging with all kinds of brands and experiences on digital platforms.” And that financial institutions shouldn’t get left behind other interactive brands and service providers looking to innovate in the metaverse.Animoca Brands, the parent company of The Sandbox, tweeted that HSBC is joining over 200 existing partnerships operating in the metaverse. Other major brands working with The Sandbox include the Warner Music Group, Adidas and Ubisoft.Related: The Sandbox partners with World of Women to drive female education and mentorship HSBC, however, is not the first bank to enter the metaverse. Last month, J.P. Morgan officially became the first major bank in Decentraland, having opened a virtual lounge in its metaverse. The global metaverse market is estimated to reach $1 trillion by 2030.Recently, Cointelegraph Brasil spoke with The Sandbox founder Sebastien Borget, who emphasized the company’s call for decentralization, interoperability and creator-generated content. “It’s important to us that the content you own or create in The Sandbox can be transferred to other open metaverses, and vice versa,” he said.

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Co-founders of UkraineDAO and Friends With Benefits DAO talk autonomous organizations at SXSW

Co-founders of UkraineDAO and Friends With Benefits DAO talk autonomous organizations at SXSW

Uverejnil používateľ | mar 15, 2022 |

Kimbal Musk, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Alex Zhang took to the SXSW stage on Monday to participate in the “Move Over NFTs. Here Come the DAOs” panel at Austin’s Convention Center. Tolokonnikova is a former member of the Russian protest punk rock group Pussy Riot, and the co-founder of UnicornDAO and UkraineDAO. Zhang co-founded the social club, DAO Friends With Benefits, and serves as its mayor, while Musk cofounded the philanthropic Big Green DAO. Journalist Michael Casey moderated.Throughout the discussion, the panelists described their distinct and contrasting use cases behind their own decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs, and came to the conclusion that ownership, transparency and localization are the main principles of a successful DAO.A self-proclaimed anarchist, Tolokonnikova said that the reason she entered Web3 was “to find better tools for activism” and found that DAOs could provide a “better governance model than a national government.” She stated that UkraineDAO was more than a $7 million fundraising effort that gathered people behind the image of the Ukrainian flag, and is a “big jump for crypto” that even Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin supported. She added that UkraineDAO broke the perception of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) being “just cartoon images” to show how NFTs can solve local problems. In this case, it was able to “distribute money really quickly” to help provide medical aid to those affected by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Related: Cryptopedia: Learn the basics of DAOs and how they workOn the other hand, Zhang’s Friends With Benefits, or FWB DAO, started as “an online accident” in 2020 and has grown into a community of people with “social and financial alignment.” FWB is made up of 6,000 token holders, including some public figures and celebrities, who work together to launch Web3 products, including the recently announced FWB.Archive tool that archives digital events.Musk chimed in to expand on the idea of a DAO as a community that “isn’t regulated by America or by any country in the world” and enables its members to have ownership over the value of the organization’s outcome. He said that Big Green DAO “really wanted to experiment with the governance system” of nonprofits by “giving power to a community” over its treasury and grant donation process.Tolokonnikova added that bureaucracy is a big problem in nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, because there isn’t that transparency around the treasury or fund distribution. DAOs not only avoid bureaucracy and promote transparency, she said, but they could offer a better governance model than nation-states around the world. The UkraineDAO co-founder, who was imprisoned for two years in Russia for hooliganism, offered her “best example” of a weird personal limitation: “A chocolate bar can move from one country to another with no problems, but I can’t.”  Related: Russian protest group Pussy Riot seeks to tackle gender inequality in the NFT spaceMusk then pondered the idea of legal protection. Since Big Green DAO is concerned with the liabilities of nonprofit organizations, he questioned whether Web3 businesses operating as DAOs have the potential to go against centralized governmental legal systems.According to Zhang, “laws are working to catch up” and in the meantime “a lot of amazing DAO infrastructure is being built that wants to operate in the real world,” which is important for a DAO like FWB, which hosts physical experiences. When Cointelegraph asked him to expand on this point, he said that he hopes DAOs will eventually replace LLCs or C Corporations and “that no one even says DAO anymore” but simply organization. Zhang also revealed that FWB is working to automize payroll and issue W-2 tax forms to its members who can choose to be paid in whichever currency they like.

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